Foster care: placement transition planning.

With Assembly Member Elhawary steering the measure and principal coauthor Assembly Member Rivas beside her, the bill anchors foster youth transitions in a formal, child-centered planning framework and unifies how communities approve and support resource families.

The bill requires each county child welfare agency to adopt a placement transition planning policy to support foster children as they move between placements and as they transition from foster care toward reunification. The policy must ensure that youth have input on transition planning and that the child’s current caregiver also contributes to the transition discussions. Social workers would use the county policy to guide transition planning whenever a placement change is proposed, and if a child’s placement cannot be preserved, appropriate transition planning must be carried out consistent with the county policy. The Department of Social Services would issue guidance describing best practices for placement transition planning, and counties would submit their placement transition planning policy to the department. The bill also codifies a broad set of rights for children in foster care and nonminor dependents, including rights to safe housing, freedom from abuse, adequate food and clothing, least-restrictive placement settings, relationships with relatives, privacy and confidential communications, access to social workers and attorneys, visitation with siblings, educational supports, health care—including gender-affirming care—and health information, and participation in court and case planning. The bill notes that these rights are not exhaustive and clarifies that they do not require actions that would compromise health and safety. The bill’s findings describe placement transitions as potentially traumatic and emphasize developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed planning and supports for all ages.

The measure also overhauls the resource family approval system, directing the state to implement a unified, family-friendly, and child-centered process that replaces multiple existing licensing and approval tracks for foster home licensing, relative and extended family member approvals, and adoptive guardianship provisions. Counties are to participate on a voluntary basis as early implementation counties, with criteria to promote geographic and size diversity. The department would set standards for home environment and permanency assessments, adopt standardized documentation, and require core competencies for county staff. The act establishes ongoing county monitoring, including inspections and corrective actions, and provides due process mechanisms such as statewide fair hearings and exclusions procedures. It also contemplates child-specific approval in certain circumstances, transfer of certain arrest notification data to the Department of Justice, and phased implementation with related funding and transitional rules. In addition, the bill requires caregiver training, including content on trauma, cultural competency, and the rights of children in care, with specified minimum hours and periodic updates.

Implementation and fiscal considerations accompany the policy changes. The bill contemplates state guidance and rulemaking to carry out the new program, and it positions counties to bear the new duties with local funding considerations. It includes a provision stating that reimbursement is not required for certain costs unless the state provides funding for those increases, and it affirms local-program status with corresponding fiscal oversight. The changes align with the bill’s intent to minimize unnecessary placement changes and to support stable, developmentally appropriate transitions, while situating the reforms within the broader framework of California’s child welfare and foster care policies and existing judicial and health care provisions.